First, I have to say that Jackie Earle Haley is so much scarier and better than Robert England. Really. Haley brings the scare back into Freddy Krueger, where as Robert England brought the scare into the character in the first 3 films, then just became stupid and really......well, kinda like a comic-horror character. Haley really does look like a burn victim and says some things that only a creep would say. He does say some things that did make me laugh a bit. But most of his performance was serious and scary. The girl who played Nancy, Rooney Mara, portrays her character better than Heather Langenkamp. She's more believable than the original Nancy. Let's hope she returns for the sequel, because a know Haley's returning.
The film actually is pretty shit-scary. I really jumped quite a lot throughout the film. I jumped twice within the first 10 minutes of it. Now that's unusual for me to be scared. I usually don't get scared easily. The last time a jumped, when watching a horror film was last year with the "Friday The 13th" remake. Only I jumped more this time.
Anyway, the plot for the film is pretty much similar to the original film. The is a few things that are different, all the other characters, other than Freddy and Nanct are different. They all have new names. The other difference to this film is that the creators of this film make the back story of Freddy better. They do it perfect this time. Turns out he was a gardener who worked and lived at a pre-school where all the main characters were at as kids. But they can't remeber they were all there together.
The death scenes aren't as graphic as I thought. They are still pretty violent though. About two of the deaths scenes looked like they were meant to be in 3D. They way Freddy's claw comes out to the camera, looks like it really was meant to come out to the audience. I do know that the film was close to becoming 3D. Wonder why they didn't do it. The producers did announce that they are doing a sequel and it's to be in 3D. Looking forward to that one.
When I saw Freddy, I kinda felt sorry for him. He, at first made it look like he was getting revenge for being killed for no reason. As if the parents of Elm Street made a mistake. So the film did kinda go that way with Nancy and Quentin searching for the truth on what actually happened to Krueger.
So they both finally find out what happened to him and they to felt sorry for him. When we saw the parents burn him, he did shoot out something like, "I didn't do anything!". So then again, you feel kinda sorry for him. But when Nancy and Quentin go back to the pre-school, they find something that make them remember what he did to them..............
Altogether I would say that this remake/reboot/prequel was very well done and I really don't understand why critics have gave it a mixed review, because it's truely amazing. I'd give it 10 out of 10.